Click below to listen to the conversation between 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck and Delores Bailey — executive director of EmPOWERment.
Welcome to “Embrace The Space!” A monthly segment presented by Trinsic Residential Group, “Embrace The Space” features conversations with experts and professionals in town planning, discussing how differing concepts — from land use and housing to transportation and beyond — all come together to create a community that works, and works for people. This month, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck was joined by Delores Bailey, executive director of EmPOWERment with two decades of expertise of speaking to and assisting underserved communities in Chapel Hill.
“My perspective [on the development process] as an African-American female that live in Chapel Hill, whose mission is about those small voices, those underserved communities, that set of people who want to speak and don’t speak — when I speak from that perspective, the process of development sometimes, most times, does not filter down to that community,” said Bailey. “What EmPOWERment is able to do when we are at the table is advocate for those communities … there’s several large projects that are out there in Chapel Hill, but I look at the lens — ‘how is this going to benefit the community of people I’m trying to serve?”
The work EmPOWERment does, characterized on the organization’s website as “a mission of empowering individuals and communities to achieve their destiny through community organizing, affordable housing, and grassroots economic development,” is strongly tied with local development, and it takes no small amount of work to attempt to ensure the needs of local residents are being met. One metric community used to understand need is AMI, area median income. According to Bailey, roughly 80% of area service workers earn wages at roughly 30% of AMI in Chapel Hill.
“A developer coming to Chapel Hill must consider all the people,” said Bailey. “My concern right now are those folks making $7.25 an hour. Can they get there? Are they going to have to use their car to get to work? Are their children ever able to walk to school? That’s what I look at when I hear about a developer, and those different pieces have to be considered.”
“Embrace The Space” is a monthly segment presented by Trinsic Residential Group on 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com featuring conversations with experts and professionals exploring town planning, from land use to housing to transportation, and examine how so much works together to form a place where people can not only live — but thrive.
You can find more conversations like this in the “Embrace The Space” archive on Chapelboro, and each month in a special segment airing on 97.9 The Hill!
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